The Art of Wine Tasting
By Ian Love

A professional wine taster is a sommelier, but you do not have to be a sommelier to enjoy the art of wine tasting. If you develop a refined palate for wine, you will find that you will enhance your enjoyment of wine drinking.

You will first notice a distinct line between wine tasting and wine drinking. Wine drinking is what people do with meals and at social parties when they want to relax. Wine tasting is a serious means of discovering which wines people enjoy drinking the most and why they enjoy drinking them.

When you taste wine, you should always take notes on the wine you taste. If you are at a wine tasting event, even a wine tasting party, your host should provide note cards and writing implements so that every guest can take notes on the wines offered for tasting.

On your note card, you should make note of three main categories, sight, smell and flavor. First, in good light, hold your wine up against a white surface and jot down the color of the wine in the glass. Is the wine transparent and light red in colored or is the wine opaque and dark red in color?

Second, swirl the wine around in the glass to all oxygen to release some of its aroma, bring the glass right up to your nose and smell it. Does it have a strong aroma? Is it flowery or fruity? Does the wine have any nuance aromas? If you think you smell odd aromas, such as mint, green olives, musty mushrooms, chocolate, skunk or cabbage, do not be alarmed and do not think there is something wrong with your smelling or the wine.

If you smell nuances of such odd odors, you will notice that they are wafting odors that enhance rather than detract from the overall aroma of the wine. Commonly, people find nuance odors of all of the above listed aromas in wines and in addition, they often find nuance odors such as old leather, wet wool, cut green grass, horsiness, mousiness, butterscotch, butter, soy sauce or canned, coked green beans in wines.

When you smell the wine, first write down the obvious aromas of the wine and then take a moment to identify any nuance aromas that the wine emits and write that down. If you are having difficulty placing an aroma, perhaps someone at the wine tasting event can pinpoint what you are smelling if he or she smells it as well.

After making note of the wine's aroma, take enough of a sip of it to swish it around in your mouth and saturate your taste buds. You could perhaps even draw breath of air over the wine while you are holding it in your mouth to bring out even more of its flavor. Ask yourself how it feels in your mouth. Does it feel smooth? What kind of flavor does it have? Does it taste sweet or does it taste bitter?

Being able to express your answers to all of these questions will determine your artistry in wine tasting.

Ian Love is the owner of Australian online wine shop - Liquor Merchants, and has been a leader in the Perth restaurant industry for over 30 years. He writes a blog on wine in his spare time.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ian_Love
http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Art-of-Wine-Tasting&id=1098556